Texas Prepares as Life-Threatening' Harvey Intensifies Into Hurricane

So there's a potentially catastrophic hurricane heading for Texas right now. It's currently a category 2 hurricane and the National Hurricane Center expects it to rapidly strengthen to a category 3 hurricane with winds of 125mph per hour.

Excerpt from article:

Harvey intensified into a hurricane Thursday and steered for the Texas coast with the potential for up to 3 feet of rain, 125 mph winds and 12-foot storm surges in what could be the fiercest hurricane to hit the United States in almost a dozen years.

Forecasters labeled Harvey a "life-threatening storm" that posed a "grave risk." Millions of people braced for a prolonged battering that could swamp dozens of counties more than 100 miles inland.

Landfall was predicted for late Friday or early Saturday between Port O'Connor and Matagorda Bay, a 30-mile (48-kilometer) stretch of coastline about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of Corpus Christi

Link

http://time.com/4914892/harvey-intensifies-tropical-storm-hurricane-texas/

This hurricane is a serious threat to anyone along the texas coastline and possibly even other states like Louisana who will feel the effects of this storm. Local and state governments in Texas have been preparing for this storm in the last few days or so. Evacuation orders have also been issued for places around texas coastline in the last day or so. You can discuss the storm in this thread but please avoid political posts. I hope everyone in this hurricane's path stays safe.

If anyone wants to follow this hurricane the National Hurricane Center will put out advisories updating on the position and intensity of the storm every hour now until landfall on late friday or early saturday morning.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/#Harvey

Edit: This hurricane is currently a cat 4 hurricane with 130mph winds. Harvey has just made landfall. Now the next stage of this hurricane starts.

cat-2 as it stands now

Work was canceled for me due to the threat of severe flooding. I'm just hoping the power stays on so I can sink some hours into Persona 5. Just got it on sale for $40.

Nice! Enjoy your gaming sessions. Make sure you are good on gas. That's been the worst experience I've had w/ Hurricanes - -the post-hurricane gas lines. Ugh.

Yeah, fill up your car/s and I recommend getting some jerry cans as well.

I also know it seems a little paranoid, but take out a few hundred dollars in cash, at least. If electricity goes down, you won't be able to use plastic at a lot of places.

Hope everyone stays safe!

That's actually really good advice. Although I'm nowhere near Texas, this would be good advice for any kind of emergency situation.

Generators. Everyone, in Texas or not, should have one. Certainly it is impossible to find one now out that way if I had to guess.

I appreciate all the advice. I grew up very near the coast so I am used to the process. I lived in Austin for a long time though so this is my first hurricane in many years. Kind of nostalgic in a weird way.

I no longer have a generator but can manage without power. Did it for Rita. I have plenty to read and study.

I got that advice during a CPR class, of all places. The instructor was a retired EMT (or fireman, can't remember, but had all the training) and did a lot of volunteer work in areas hit by hurricanes like Florida, New Orleans, etc over the span of decades, so he has seen all manner of shit.

I'm not a "doomsday prep'er" by any means, but the guy doing the class had some good tips. He said basic skills like CPR, heimlich, and so forth are critical. You should have at least a few gallons of potable water stored at your house. Some bleach, bleach wipes, etc. Every pay check, take out maybe 50 bucks in cash and put it in a safe or safe place for an emergency situation. And a set or two of spare clothes in a zip lock or other air tight bag. If you have camping gear (gas stove, sleeping bags, etc), even better.

I'm still working on a lot of my "go bag" but I got the cash, water, and bleach part down. I have enough canned goods on hand that I can eat for a while.

I feel that way about earthquakes (I live in California). For some reason they don't seem as frequent these days, maybe because I don't live as close to the fault line? Anyway, when they happen, I'm usually kind of giddy, and going "Wheeeeeee!" and people around me are like "WTF are you going on about?"

My roommate is actually from out of state and experienced her first one not too long ago and was a little freaked out and I was like "Hey that was fun wasn't it?!" and then I realized it might actually be kind of frightening for her lol. So we just walked around the house and looked for cracks in the walls and checked for gas leaks, everything was good, she was OK after that.

I'm just happy we don't get tornadoes.

I have yet to actually see a live tornado touch down. Every once in a while, they do come about in the Denver metro area, but never exactly where I'm at. I'm the type of person, though, that if there ever was a tornado near me, I'd probably just run out there and go, "OOOOOOOH!"

Yeah people always talk shit about the people that die in "dumb" ways, like "oh that dumb person died doing ____________" but I never do because I might die staring at an impressive, beautiful shark before it eats me (instead of swimming away) or watching an amazing act of nature take place like a tornado (instead of seeking shelter like a smart person).

This weather sucks

It's a bit breezy here too.

At least, there weren't 235 mph gusts and devastating 20-ft storm surges like the one my wife's relatives experienced with that super-typhoon (Typhoon Haiyan) back in 2013. One of my nephew-in-laws had to dive down and rescue his youngest kid (toddler) after the force of the water separated them. Unlike most storm surges, the 20-ft surge came in less than a minute.

One of the photos my wife took when she visited her hometown months later. Their family business was a total loss. The only thing left that can be salvaged was the property itself. At least, everyone in their family clan made it through which is the most important of all.